Daniele Parisi partner in MSCA ITN project of EUR 3,9 million

Daniele Parisi, assistant professor in Rheology of Complex Polymeric and Colloidal Systems at the ENTEG institute, is partner in a Horizon 2022 – MSCA – ITN (Innovative Training Network) that has been awarded EUR 3,9 million for the project ‘ReBond’; a universal platform for recycling plastic waste using dynamic covalent bonds.

ReBond aims at combining complementary areas of expertise in vitrimer synthesis and multi-scale physical properties of soft composite materials, to decode the relationship between the vitrimer molecular structure and rheological response, to construct a roadmap for designing dynamic systems with desired performance. The superior properties displayed by vitrimers will be exploited to design compatibilizers for unsorted polymer waste streams. Developing, testing and implementing vitrimer-based plastic recycling technologies pose many intriguing questions encompassing synthesis, structure-dynamics interplay, processing, stability and performance. These questions are inherently interdisciplinary, spanning polymer chemistry, physics, and engineering. The consortium, focused on the rheological/ mechanical/ processing properties of networks containing vitrimers, represents an ideal platform to bring together an international team of experts from both academia and industry to train the next generation of material scientists and promote circular economy.

Daniele Parisi receives approx. EUR 366,000 for a PhD student who will be based for 3 years in Parisi’s lab and 1 year at ESPCI Paris. The objective of this project is to study the structural and dynamic properties of recycled plastics and extrudates, with and without compatibilizing vitrimers, via novel rheo-spectroscopy techniques. Additionally, two other PhD students in the doctoral network will spend a year at the lab of Parisi.